There were far worse titles I could have used on this recap....just saying.

The Lightning continued their losing streak by dropping a yawnfest against the Canadiens on Saturday night. In what should have been an exciting, playoff feel game, turned out to me asking if I could get those three hours of my life back. The boys came out with no energy and with the exception of the start of the 2nd period, a general lack of care to win the game.

Montreal on the other hand came to play. Their team played like they wanted it. They forechecked harder, they kept the puck in at the line and went for the rebounds and Carey Price stopped the shots that he needed to, which give their team a very decisive win.

The Lightning play four games this week with games against the Capitals, Blackhawks, Senators and Panthers. They play the Caps next on Monday at 7pm, lets hope that they decide to show up to that one.
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Apologies for not blogging for the past few days, I went to a few Canuck games this week and have been getting home super late because of it. If it makes you feel better, the games I saw have been some of the most boring hockey I've watched all season (I'm looking at you Central Division)

Game time: 7:00pm EST on SUN (HD), CBC, RDS (HD) and on the radio at 620 WDAE

If the playoffs were to start today, this would be the first round matchup: Lightning vs. Canadiens with Tampa having home ice advantage. The french media would be jizzing in their pants if this happened. Think of all the Lecavalier, Boucher, St. Louis, and Bergeron stories they could write. IN FRENCH. EN FRANCAIS.

The Lightning have won the two games we've played against the Habs this season so far (4-3 on October 13th and 4-1 on December 30). The team has sat in 2nd place in the Eastern Conference quite comfortably for the past few weeks since had built up such a big lead. But with the losses here and there in the homestand and those last two losses on the road, they seem to be not keeping pace. The Caps on the other hand have been making up serious ground are are only 1 point back from the Lightning right now. The boys need to get their sh-t together.

In between the Bruins, er, Lucic manhandling the Bolts, I head that Mike Smith actually played well. And truthfully, I think that's fantastic to hear because he's had a rough go at it in Tampa. But as for tonight's game, I think it's safe to assume we're going to see Roloson start in net.

Who is playing well? Montreal's goalie Carey Price. He's played some of his best hockey of his career this year. He's currently 2nd in wins in the NHL with 30 wins - which is the first time he's had 30 wins in a season in his career. He is also tied for 2nd in shutouts in the league at 7 shutouts this year.

Who is not playing well? Steven Stamkos with only 1 points in his last 10 games. Ouch. He needs to shoot the puck more.

Keys to the game? With tonight's game being a possible playoff matchup, I'm expecting the game to have playoff like atmosphere (beware: Hab fans will invade St. Pete Times Forum). Both teams will need to play disciplined and need to stay out of the box. The Lightning may be missing some of their key forwards but the team needs to step up and play to win. And Stamkos needs to shoot more.

Line-up Notes:

Lightning injuries: Ryan Malone, Mike Lundin are out with mid body injuries. There are three players that are out day-to-day: Vincent Lecavalier (mid body), Steve Downie (lower body) and Marc-Andre Bergeron (back spasms)

We just played the Devils last week on Friday where we won 2-1 on our last home game of the 12 game homestand ending their 8 game winning streak. After not making any moves at trade deadline day, the Lightning roll in to Newark today a game tonight before taking off to Boston for a game tomorrow. The Lightning now have 20 games left before the end of the regular season.

The Devils are sitting in 13th spot right now in the Eastern Conference, but are 11 points back from eight place Hurricanes. Martin Brodeur returned to the lineup on Sunday since being kept out since February with a knee injury. They look a little different from when we last saw them since they shipped off Jason Arnott to the Washington Capitals for David Steckel and a 2nd round pick in 2012.

With back to back games you have to wonder if Mike Smith will get a start, and if so, against the Devils or the Bruins? Erlendsson's game preview says that Roloson is supposed to start tonight, so I guess that sets up Smith against Boston. Unless, it's back to back for Roloson? We'll have to see how this plays out in the next two days.

So todays game was both great and pointed out some serious flaws with the Lightning.

Let start with the good:-sweeping the season the series over the Rangers was awesome-winning the first game of the roadtrip after the long homestand we've had was a great way to head into the final stretch of games-Lecavalier continued to put up points with a PPG

And now the flaws:-letting in ANOTHER shorthanded goal-our powerplay looks like sh-t-Dubinsky was able to outwork whoever the Lightning put against him in the faceoff circle-let me reiterate, our special teams sucks so hard

But we're moving on to the next game which is on Wednesday in New Jersey.

But obviously, tomorrow is trade deadline day. The official deadline for trades is at 3pm ET. You can catch me on twitter tomorrow (I'll be tweeting under my Benched Whale account), and I'll have some thoughts up on the blog tomorrow midway through the day, and again at the end of the day when the day is over.

It will be interesting to see what Yzerman does with his first trade deadline day. Will he want to add in another defenceman (because we always need one) or another forward (he did just send down Harju, no? But then again Malone will be back in a few weeks....) or does he stand pat and try not to ruin team chemistry? I personally think he needs to make a move, for a defenceman in particular, because I believe that a team need to carry 8 defencemen into the playoffs in case of injury. Obviously doing well this year is a bit of a surprise being that this is Yzerman's first year as a GM, but you never know if you are going to get as good as a chance ever again.

With Smith clearing waivers yesterday, it was useless to keep McElhinney as well. He'll be sent to the minors until he becomes a UFA this summer. As I said before, his acquisition was more of a salary dump of Ellis since he still had another year on his contract rather than for McElhinney's services. As for sending Harju down to Norfolk, well it gives Yzerman some room if he were to acquire a forward through a trade or a pickup from the waiver wire
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Tonight's game is the last game in our 12 game homestand. It's our third of the four game's we'll play against the Devils who have pretty much had the Lightnings' number all season. But the Lightning have a tough game tonight as the Devils have been 16-1-2 since January 9th when they beat the Lightning. Their goaltender Johan Hedberg has had seven straight wins, and two shutouts in his last 3 starts. This has the making for a terrible game to watch.

The Lightning are still riding their high of winning over the Coyotes 8-3. Purcell got his first NHL hat trick, and our captain had a huge 5 point night. The bench looks a little different, as Dan Ellis has now been traded to Anaheim, so we'll have Curtis McElhinney or Mike Smith (if he clears waivers) as back-up on the bench.

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